Today, materials originating from a plant are used in many applications. Such materials are consumed, e.g. as food, food supplement, medicine, for cosmetic reasons or simply for pleasure (taste, color, shape). Native or processed plants can be consumed in different forms, e.g. fresh, dehydrated, cooked, fermented or concentrated (extracts). It is known that food quality has a major impact on health and that plant based materials provide many essential nutrients. It is, for instance, recommended to eat five fruits and vegetables a day to receive a sufficient amount of essential substances such as proteins, sugars, lipids, amino acids, vitamins, polyphenols and aromatic derivates, as well as soluble and insoluble fibers.
People tend to complement or even substitute direct vegetal product consumption (vegetals in their original form) by plant-based material in form of pills, capsules, gums, drops, powders or the like to receive sufficient essential substances. Plant-based material is consumed not only as food supplement but also as nutraceutics, for beauty (e.g. anti-aging), health or traditional medicine/phytotherapy.
Nature is a source of medicinal products for millennia, with many useful drugs developed from plant sources. However, the quality and concentration of substances and functionality, e.g. color, taste or humidity of plants, varies depending on the origin of species (seeds), the geographic localization, seasonality, the nature of the soil, growing conditions, harvest date, etc. Further, natural plants can comprise undesired substances or be contaminated, e.g. with bacterial loads, pesticides, heavy metals, mycotoxins and toxic substances. Still further, the desired substances from a natural plant can in many cases not be easily extracted during digestion, e.g. the lycopene trapped in the skin of tomatoes.
There is still a need to improve products originating from plant materials, e.g., for nutraceutical or phytotherapeutical or food supplement use. In particular, it is desirable to control the amount of substances originating from plant materials as well as conditions and time needed to achieve a desired effect.